Bugs and complaints on current master

[Nick]

I havent been playing much, but looking at the randrat file of my latest characters, not a single randart had extra attacks. Standarts are still the same.

Basically, this means that randart weapons are even worse than before, so I would almost always end up with an ego weapon in the endgame, which is not what I want when picking randarts. I assume this is an error ?

All right, I've found the actual error here - when I first started working on randarts post 4.0, I had accidentally left a line in which unconditionally set extra blows to 0 on everything. Unsurprisingly, removing that line is an improvement

[Thraalbee]

An issue with [angband-4.0.3-504-g35c4104] and a !*healing* located on top of a lava flow # caused by monsters. I see it in the items list, I see it with "x" but when I step on it I get no "You see..." message and no auto pickup adding it to the stack in my inventory. "Get" works though.

[Nick]

Thanks - I had found the powerful one (although there are still issues with that code), but not the brand/slay one.

[PowerWyrm]

There'a also a potential problem with add_brand() and add_slay(). For example (brand -- slay is identical):

struct brand *brand;

...
append_random_brand(&art->brands, &brand)
...
if (streq(brand->name, elements[i].name)
...

"brand" is always initialized with the "pick" even if nothing is appended. To avoid spamming randarts with resists, a check should be added:

struct brand *brand;

...
if (append_random_brand(&art->brands, &brand)) {
  ...
  if (streq(brand->name, elements[i].name)
  ...
}

[PowerWyrm]

I havent been playing much, but looking at the randrat file of my latest characters, not a single randart had extra attacks. Standarts are still the same.

This is a bug in commit 4e5780a. Extra attacks (as well as extra might/shots on shooters) are "powerful".

if (powerful) {
    if (one_in_(2 * art->modifiers[mod])) {
        art->modifiers[mod]++;
    }
}

Of course, since you try to add to a modifier with value of zero, the chance is one_in_(zero)...

From the old code, this should be:

if (powerful) {
    if (art->modifiers[mod] == 0)
        art->modifiers[mod] = randint1(2);
    else if (one_in_(2 * art->modifiers[mod])) {
        art->modifiers[mod]++;
    }
}

[Nick]

Curses:

When I read a scroll of remove curse, it prompts first the item choice, then the available curses. When I press "arrow down" in the 2nd situation, the game crashes.

Also: How do I select a curse to remove ? When I press "return" on the 2nd prompt, the popup closes without any message, the curse is still there and the item has not become fragile. Did the game attempt to remove it, or does return just exit ? The scroll is gone, so I hope its the former. It would be helpful to get some dialogue feedback on what is going on.

I think the correct answer is the game doesn't know what the hell it's doing

I'll try to fix that.

[Estie]

Curses:

When I read a scroll of remove curse, it prompts first the item choice, then the available curses. When I press "arrow down" in the 2nd situation, the game crashes.

Also: How do I select a curse to remove ? When I press "return" on the 2nd prompt, the popup closes without any message, the curse is still there and the item has not become fragile. Did the game attempt to remove it, or does return just exit ? The scroll is gone, so I hope its the former. It would be helpful to get some dialogue feedback on what is going on.

[takkaria]

This is true. It is a result of putting max level on ego types and weapon types. In 3.0, Big 3 weapons with big 3 ego types (it was big 4 back then) were pretty rare. They are now found essentially every game.

Until recently nightlies the maximum level on egos wasn't actually enforced - there was a number in the ego file but it wasn't used anywhere. So it seems likely there is another explanation.

[Pete Mack]

@Nick--
These are the faults I'm aware of:
* the issue that throwing brands on a weapon will make it better
* the possibility for ridiculously overpowered bows
* the possibility of off-weapon brands or blows. (This is guaranteed to be unbalancing)
* the possibility of truly high power items in every slot. (This is guaranteed to be unbalancing too.)

[Derakon]

This is true. It is a result of putting max level on ego types and weapon types. In 3.0, Big 3 weapons with big 3 ego types (it was big 4 back then) were pretty rare. They are now found essentially every game.

This in turn sounds like a failure of the allocation system to make allocation rates of ego 1 be independent of allocation rates of ego 2. We shouldn't need to make there be more crappy items just to ensure that there are fewer good items. I smell a theorycrafting post coming...

[Nick]

All right, I think we need to talk about randarts again.

[Pete Mack]

This is true. It is a result of putting max level on ego types and weapon types. In 3.0, Big 3 weapons with big 3 ego types (it was big 4 back then) were pretty rare. They are now found essentially every game.

So it sounds like the issue really is that the relative frequency of "endgame-quality" ego weapons is higher than that of artifacts. It's not like most standart players find any of Ringil/Deathweaker/Doomcaller either.
.

[Nick]

Nick-
The trouble with randarts has always been the attempt to improve value by piling on brands and slays on a weapon with mediocre base damage and bonus. No matter how many are piled on, a 2d5 weapon can never be better than just a 'good' blade of chaos. You end up with a lot of decorated junk and glorified Defender weapons.

Maybe, but the same argument can be made for the standard artifact weapons.

[Pete Mack]

Nick-
The trouble with randarts has always been the attempt to improve value by piling on brands and slays on a weapon with mediocre base damage and bonus. No matter how many are piled on, a 2d5 weapon can never be better than just a 'good' blade of chaos. You end up with a lot of decorated junk and glorified Defender weapons.

Yes, one change I made reduced that significantly. Thanks for telling me - this is precisely the sort of feedback I wanted. I'll put it back

[Nick]

Basically, this means that randart weapons are even worse than before, so I would almost always end up with an ego weapon in the endgame, which is not what I want when picking randarts. I assume this is an error ?

Yes, one change I made reduced that significantly. Thanks for telling me - this is precisely the sort of feedback I wanted. I'll put it back